I do not like the new surreal fascism. It's not cute. It's not ironic. I thought part of the whole appeal of authoritarianism was the consistency, the lack of complexity, the comfort of a world brutally sorted into little metal boxes.

But, you're not going to get any of that with these guys.

I guess the fear is still there. "The Pope is Weak on Crime" no one knows what this means, but also everyone gets it.

@futurebird

I mean. On the whole, Jesus was "weak on crime".

If you think about it. πŸ€”

He was not very into the whole punitive model of justice.

@TerryHancock @futurebird He kinda invented Hell.

@michaelgemar @futurebird

Hmm. Did he though..?

@TerryHancock @futurebird Pretty much. He talks a lot about hell as a place of punishment, which (as I understand it) was not really a feature of the Jewish afterlife.

And the notion of eternal conscious torment is really fucked up.

@michaelgemar @TerryHancock @futurebird If we acknowledge the Gospels were written by humans who mostly did not meet Jesus they're really about what the writers think Jesus said/should have said.
@InkySchwartz @TerryHancock @futurebird That’s certainly a fair point (although then I’m not sure how we can tell anything about the historical Jesus).

@michaelgemar
True. There are even those who have made the case that Jesus was entirely fictitious. There are no real contemporaneous references to him, outside of Christian sources, so it's possible.

Of course, the ancient world was not so documented as today. There are many people and events with limited references. I am personally of the opinion that he existed, but that the gospel exaggerated his impact. Which seems consistent with religious leaders and followers, generally.

But it clearly is the case that the Gospels are essentially propaganda documents created many years after, with agendas set by their authors.

So analysis of what Jesus said, is best understood as literary criticism of a character, as represented, rather than analysis of any real person the character may be based on. It's mythology or mytho-history at best.

I am most struck, though, by the many times that Jesus tempered punitive behavior, forgave sins, encouraged rehabilitation, understanding, acceptance, etc. This seems contrary to the punitive mindset of conservatives to me.

@InkySchwartz @futurebird

@TerryHancock @michaelgemar @InkySchwartz @futurebird

Jesus is whatever you want Jesus to be.

As far as we can trace peeps have been arguing about the nature of the annointed one and if was flesh or not, or suffered or not. Where it came from, where it went and what it all means.

The modern fashion of mundane flesh Jesus Christology assembled by removing stuff from the Gospel of Mark seems more post protestant Christology for the masses that stopped going to masses but want novel Jesuses.